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Social Media Résumé: A Link Too Far?

By Alan KotokMarch 17, 2008

Christopher Penn, chief technology officer of the Student Loan Network and
founder of the Financial Aid Podcast, has created what he calls a social media résumé that applies a panoply of Web
2.0 technologies to the challenge of telling the world about himself and his
accomplishments. Penn assembled the site using Google Page Creator, a simplified Web site design
tool from Google. He offers his résumé as a model for anyone who wants to take
a similar approach.

You can’t help but be impressed with what Penn has
combined on one Web page. The centerpiece, literally, is an introductory video,
surrounded by links to his personal Web sites, his LinkedIn profile,
work-related Web sites, bookmark sites (e.g., del.icio.us, StumbleUpon), his
instant-messaging addresses, his Twitter link, RSS feed subscriptions, and a
drop-down menu of 14 more social bookmarks. If you’re a traditionalist and want
a résumé you can print on paper, there’s a link to a PDF copy of his LinkedIn
profile, and if you need that personal, real-time connection, he lists his
telephone number (which doubles as a fax number, in case you chicken out from a
voice call).

While
I like bells and whistles as much as anyone, you have to wonder whether a résumé
of this kind will get you in the door for an interview any faster than the
traditional printed page. Dave Jensen, who writes the Science Careers’ Tooling Up column, talked about résumés and cover
letters just last month. While not denying its importance
in the overall process, Jensen says "a good résumé is better than a great résumé
because it’s out there working for you while the great one is still being
analyzed and revised." Also, the résumé, according to Jensen, should address in
some way the needs of the hiring company. It’s hard to do that with even the
most impressive Web technology, unless you want to design a different Web site
for every job you apply for.

Penn’s social-media résumé may be a great advert for
people in the Web 2.0 business, but it has LOOK-AT-ME written all over it. It’s
impressive in its own right, but Penn still needs to explain how he will help a
hiring organization make money or cut costs.